The present invention is generally directed to roof water dispersal systems such as those generally disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,939,616 entitled "Rain Water Run-Off Disperser" issued on Feb. 24, 1976 to Richard L. Schapker, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,488 entitled "Rain Disperser System" issued to Lawrence C. Burns on Mar. 3, 1987. The disclosures of the aforementioned two United States patents are expressly incorporated by reference in the present specification.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,261,195 and 5,261,196, both of which are entitled "Roof Water Dispersal System" and both of which issued on Nov. 16, 1993 to the present inventors Erwine T. Buckenmaier and Richard J. Urban, disclose and claim improvements to roof water dispersal systems of the type generally disclosed by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,939,616 and 4,646,488. The disclosures of both U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,261,195 and 5,261,196 are also expressly incorporated by reference in the present specification.
Prior art roof water dispersal systems, such as those disclosed by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,939,616 and 4,646,488, include a plurality of longitudinal dispersal elements or slats which are oriented to extend laterally in a direction parallel to the drip edge of a roof structure. The prior art roof water dispersal assemblies include one or more transverse cross members which intersect and support the lateral slats from below in a substantially perpendicular orientation for assembling the slats into a unit and for maintaining a predetermined angular orientation and spacing between the individual lateral slats. The assembled unit is mounted either to the roof structure itself or to a vertical wall of a building structure such that the plurality of laterally extending parallel slats are positioned relative to the drip edge of the roof to receive, to deflect and to disperse streams of run-off water flowing downwardly from the roof.
Roof water disperser systems of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,939,616 and 4,646,488 are intended to replace conventional rain gutters. As more fully discussed in these patents, rain gutters are generally expensive to install, require continuous maintainance to remove leaves and other debris which accumulate in the channels, and divert roof run-off water into relatively large streams which impact against the same area or areas of the underlying terrain with a damaging and errosive effect. Roof water dispersal systems employing parallel slats, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,939,616 and 4,646,488, are easy to install and require minimal maintainance subsequent to installation. More importantly, run-off roof water is dispersed by the multiple-slat assembly over a wide range of terrain extending along the entire roof edge, thereby avoiding any damaging and errosive effect on the underlying terrain which would otherwise result from the impact of high velocity streams of unimpeded run-off water continuously against the same localized areas beneath the roof edge.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,261,195 and 5,261,196 disclose and claim improvements to the prior art roof water dispersal systems of the type exemplified by the aforementioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,939,616 and 4,646,488. The disclosures of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,261,195 and 5,261,196 are directed to roof water dispersal systems which provide optimum dispersion characteristics by, among other things, varying the thickness, shape and material from which the lateral extending dispersal elements or slats in the overall dispersal assembly are formed; varying the direction of roof water flow from the drip edge relative to the dispersal assembly; and varying the angular orientation of the overall assembled roof water dispersal element relative to the horizontal. As noted above, the disclosures of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,261,195 and 5,261,196 are expressly incorporated by reference in the present specification and attention is directed to the two patents for further information concerning the improvements to roof water dispersal systems disclosed therein.
The present invention provides further improvements to the prior art roof water dispersal systems exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,939,616 and 4,646,488. The present invention is also directed to additions and modifications to the roof water dispersal systems disclosed and claimed in applicants' earlier U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,261,195 and 5,261,196. As is discussed in greater detail below, the transverse or perpendicularly oriented cross members of the known roof water dispersal systems, including supporting brackets, are oriented to support the laterally extending dispersal elements from below. In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, the transverse supporting and spacing elements are oriented and arranged to support the laterally extending dispersal elements from above, and not below. In a further aspect of the present invention, barrier elements are mounted at predetermined spaced distances along the length of each of the laterally extending disperser elements for inhibiting lateral flow of roof water received by the disperser element. Other advantages of the improvements to roof water dispersal systems in accordance with the present invention will be apparent from the following description in conjunction with the drawings.